Why 10,000 West Michigan workers flocked to Steelcase in its heyday (Steelcase at 100)

WYOMING – When Perry Kubizna walks into an Arnie’s restaurant wearing his Steelcase Retirees Club identification card, there’s an instant rapport with other customers and the wait staff.

“What plant did you work at?”

“Who did you work for over there?”

Kubizna, 69, worked for Steelcase Inc. during its heyday as West Michigan’s largest employer. He was one of about 10,000 workers who designed, built and sold chairs, desks, file cabinets and panels in offices and factories that grew with the needs of North America’s growing white collar workforce.

On Friday, Steelcase will celebrate its 100th anniversary. It is now a global company with 13,000 employees, but only 3,000 work in West Michigan.

Looking at the company today, Kubizna does not fault Steelcase’s current managers for the downsizing and outsourcing that moved much of its production off-shore and to outside suppliers.

“It’s just not like it was 30 years ago. Nothing is,” Kubizna said. “They made the decisions they had to make to still be a company.

Birgit Klohs, president of the Right Place economic development program, agrees.

Perry Kubizna

“First of all, we have to acknowledge the company is an icon in this community,” Klohs said. “The history of this company in this community is enormous.

“The board and management of Steelcase had to meet global changes that were beyond their control,” Klohs said. “Name an industry that hasn’t changed.”

Today, Steelcase is a global leader in the changing world of how people work, Klohs said. “The way we work today is so different today than it was five or 10 years ago.”

Working at Steelcase was a far different proposition in 1963, when 20-year-old Kubizna landed a job at the Chair Plant on Eastern Avenue SE.

Kubizna recalls earning a base pay of $1.38 an hour. He was able to boost it to $2.50 through the company’s piece rate system. “That was actually pretty good money,” he said.

Tell us your Steelcase story

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Over his 34 years at Steelcase, Kubizna held a variety of jobs that ranged from helping the company set up a museum for its chairs to setting up the first panel lines for customer shows. He was trained and retrained for a variety of jobs. He estimates the company gave him two years of college education.

“I had a good career, I held many jobs with the company,” said Kubizna, who retired in 1997 at age 54.

Today, Kubizna stays active as president of the 350-member Steelcase Retirees Club. He also umpires softball games and high school girls volleyball games. He and his wife enjoy traveling and are planning a trip to Europe next year for their 50th anniversary.

He’s proud of the club’s members and other Steelcase retirees who remain active in the community and are generous in giving back.

“Steelcase teaches you that -- to help out and take care of other people,” says Kubizna. “It’s something you learned from supervisors or management. You see it every day.”

Although their base pay was below their unionized counterparts at General Motors Corp. or Kelvinator Inc., they more than made up for it when the company paid out its quarterly and its annual bonuses, Kubizna said.

Some years, the quarterly bonuses totaled up to 50 percent of their base pay and the annual bonus topped that by another 10 percent, Kubizna said. Appliance stores held special store hours for Steelcase workers during bonus time.

“It never missed, it was always there,” said Kubizna, chuckling as he recalled how the size of the bonus became the subject of year-end betting pools.

As a Steelcase employee, Kubizna also had the right to “sponsor” a family member into the company as part of a culture that encouraged nepotism. It was a prized benefit for a parent who wanted to see their offspring enjoy the same benefits they enjoyed.

With his two daughters headed for college, Kubizna said he never exercised his sponsorship.

Bonnie Ivey did follow her father and sister into Steelcase in 1965, shortly after she graduated from Catholic Central High School.

Although she left Steelcase 18 years later, Ivey says she still feels connected to the company and cried when layoffs were announced in recent years.

“I worked in Desk and File, my sister worked in Woodworking, my father was in Time Study, my best friend from high school worked across from me,” she said. “That’s what was so nice about it. It was so family-oriented.”

“Everybody did their job and helped everybody out and was so loyal to Steelcase,” said Ivey, who waits tables at an Arnie’s restaurant.

“Nobody could talk bad about Steelcase because they did everything right.”